Length: 16¼ km (10 miles), or 13 km (8 miles) if you finish at Sandhurst. Toughness: 1/10
10:03 Penzance train from Paddington, changing at Reading (arr 10:26, dep 10:48) for the Gatwick Airport train on Platform 5, arriving Crowthorne at 11:02.
The rail sites specify the 10:13 Bristol Parkway train from Paddington but this only gives you nine minutes to make the connection at Reading. As few of us would bet on a trouble-free experience at Paddington I'd recommend aiming for the earlier train.
If you want to travel out on the Elizabeth line you'll either have to risk the 09:45 from Paddington (Ealing Bdy 09:56) with an eight-minute connection at Reading, or take the one half an hour earlier.
South Londoners have the option of taking the 09:39 Reading train from Waterloo (Vauxhall 09:43, Clapham Jct 09:49, etc) and changing at Wokingham (arr 10:49, dep 10:57). This is a rather leisurely journey but you can get a significantly cheaper "Sunday Out Return via Ascot/Guildford" ticket on this route.
You need to change platforms at Wokingham and the footbridge is by the rear of the Waterloo train.
In all cases buy a return to Blackwater. A return from Boundary Zone 6 with a Freedom Pass or Travelcard is good value and valid on all routes, so might be your best option.
Trains back from Blackwater are at xx:04 and xx:30 to Wokingham and Reading, and in the other direction at xx:09 and xx:35 to Guildford and Redhill (if your ticket allows it, travelling back via Reading is much quicker than the alternatives). Only half of these services call at Sandhurst and Crowthorne, so check carefully if you opt for a shorter walk.
After all that travel information there's hardly any room left to describe the walk. Shorter than the other Blackwater valley walk (SWC#83, via Finchampstead), it's a mix of woodland, heaths and worked-out gravel pits being transformed into nature reserves. There's a dreary chunk of road walking towards the end but you can skip some of this by dropping out as you pass Sandhurst station (or take the circular walk option back to Crowthorne).
There are two pubs alongside the village green in Eversley Cross, after 7 km. The suggested place is a Fuller's pub, the Frog and Wicket; alternatively there's “Eversley's gastro pub”, the Chequers. The tea options in Sandhurst or Blackwater aren't too enticing, but the route passes the Lake View Café at Horseshoe Lake and the Sandhurst Park Cafe in between the two stations, as well as some pubs.
Please bring the directions from the L=swc.430 page.
1 comment:
A surprisingly low N=3 on a w=hot-sunny day, As most of the walk was in shade, this hardly mattered. Lakes with waterlilies, big (and I mean BIG) trees, woodland, and a bit of heather. We saw 1 duck - or was it a grebe, and several demoiselles (like dragonflies, only posher).
Would you believe the Frog and Wicket had HSB? Well, it did and two of us had 2 pints of the stuff.
There was a cricket match in progress and every so often one of us had to get up and throw the ball lback over the road. Luckily, Mr Tiger was facing the wrong way to notice.
Afterward, we wobbled our weary way onward, along the Blackwater, stopping briefly at a lakeside cafe. The on again.
2 lightweights dropped out at Sandhurst, after yet more drink in the Rose and Crown . The other, a hardnut, continued on to Blackwater. A grand day out.
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